Loire Valley

06/29/2014

Angers, France is Austin's sister city, and it's worth a visit for many reasons--including what is nearby: the already very special Fontevraud Abbey made even more special now for the recently opened gorgeous new hotel and restaurant right on the Abbey grounds.

Visit the Abbey and the grounds for sure, and soak up the history of Eleanor of Aquitaine ("one of the most powerful and fascinating personalities of feudal Europe" one random www source says), then spend the night and wake up in perfect quiet and peace in the French countryside. The style of the hotel decor may be best characterized as W Hotel meets high-end organic, sleek yet monastic. Seriously sublime.

Fontevraud lends itself well enough already to fabulous outdoor celebrations, including festivals that keep the grounds open until all hours, with films projected everyone, including the Abbey walls, and people sleeping wherever a sleeping bag may fit. Sleeping peacefully in the cool tones of beige and white of the hotel rooms though is well worth the splurge.

Visit the hotel web site here to see what I mean, and learn about the Abbey's fascinating history here. At the hotel web site, be sure and click on that video for views via a cute little drone to get up close and personal with the countryside and the hotel's interiors.

Back when I visited in April 2014, I was not sure they would make the May launch date. But make it they did. In grand style. Jealous of Angers friend who received a special invite to attend these festivities, but as he sent me the pictures, all is forgiven.

The photos are the work of David Darrault, and all are protected by copyright. A big thank you to the Abbey staff (merci, Anne !) for letting me share his superb photos here.

04/13/2014

Sunday April 13 would be the official big day for the Livre et Vin festival here in Saumur--thanks to Bouvet Ladubay keeping this event alive and even expanding it to national stature--but Friday night opened with a very special, private reception on the grounds of the Abbaye Fontevraud, with--yes Bouvet Ladubay's beautiful sparkling wines being served--but also a French president's daughter, Mazarine Pingeot, as the guest of honor.

Mazarine Pingeot is a professor, an author, a mom. After seeing her here and there at various events, and being right next to her one night later as I mentioned that in Austin there are cocktails with mezcal AND absinthe (subtle gasp from the group), I get that she is a remarkably regular person. And in reading her book that I would buy later that night, that becomes even more clear. But the panel discussion that evening over dinner, was all quite clever and very literary: critics and authors addressed Mazarine's work, her father's writing, and her status now in French culture ever since her existence was made known to the French general public (read the story here). It was heady stuff.

Another star of the night, in addition to Mazarine Pingeot, was the Abbey itself. Not very often is it open at night. Some public art and theatrical spectacles taking advantage of the light and shadows of this special place occur there from time to time, but tonight we had the place to ourselves (aside from a few artists in residence there).

The Abbaye Fontevraud is in Fontevraud, a village of 1500 inhabitants (per the mayor herself). The Abbaye appears to be re-inventing itself, over and over again, keeping itself relevant in a region--a nation--of numerous architectural and geographical wonders. The web site itself was enough to draw me in. The old, the magestic, and the highly spiritual are all combined with shocking hot pink accents. It works. And if you do not know the story about Eleanor of Aquitaine, you should. She was, um, high-spirited one could say. She is recognized as the most powerful woman in feudal Europe. She spent her last days at the Abbaye Fontevraud.

The picturesque village of Fontevraud, from the color of the special limestone (tufa), which is everywhere is this region, to the color of the shutters (pale shades of sage) also must conform to historical niceties. The effect is charming, as it is for most architecturally controlled historic districts--all the way down to the beautifully paved streets, re-done to look old.

But Friday was not so much for the history of Fontevraud and its Abbey, but the place as backdrop for a dinner event, which began with an aperitif on a vast expanse of lawn.

There was of course Bouvet Ladubay for our elegant beverage, Bouvet Ladubay being a favorite sponsor of many Austin-Angers events, i.e., SxSW just last month.

As lovely as all that was, out there on the lawn on a cool evening, especially hearing Madame le Maire of Fontevraud explain to a friend and me how historical preservation funding works in France, it was eventually time to go inside for the "Cafe Litteraire."

I get now that a "cafe litteraire" is the name for a certain type of ritual: a very pleasant interlude for erudite literary conversation accompanied by food and beverage, or just a beverage or just food. We had a lovely little meal for this special evening at Fontevraud, at the Alienor Cafe, while listening to Mazarine.

I did not have to regret for long that I had not thought to buy a book for Mazarine to sign: there were books there for purchase, which she graciously signed.

After hearing her discuss over dinner the poetry of everyday things, and the agony and ecstasy in the monotony of everyday life, I had to get her book, "les invasions quotidiennes."

Mazarine Pingeot signing books.

For a special treat as part of the overall VIP treatment, there was a late-night tour of the Abbey--or Eleanor at least.

Close to midnight things really started winding down. Time to head home to Saumur. When I returned to my lovely hotel, the Hotel Saint-Pierre, there was a gift waiting for me in my room.

Between that and my new book signed by a French president's daughter, this was, I thought then, quite a good end to a pretty great day in France.

11/27/2013

As I read in between drafts of motions a few articles about trends in French gastronomy, including this piece in Slate about the lack of French female chefs in France, I recall it is a seasons of thanks. I am reminded to thank my parents for fostering this "French thing" I have going on: from that costly Junior Year in France, which got me life-long bragging rights to say I took a class at the age of 20 (infancy) in French at one of the French grandes écoles--Sciences Po in Paris; to educational French class trips to France while still in high school (educational especially in getting to be friends with Côtes du Rhône at an early age); to their staying with my son whilst I have gone off in recent years looking for ways to "figure out" France for business (it will take a lifetime) and my place within that culture as experienced here back home.

I am grateful to be able to say that this was not an "awesome" trip in terms of sublime moments walking up and down the Seine, and that is just fine. That is what makes it a great trip. It was an exhausting research and business intelligence-gathering trip. Amidst that "worst trip ever" (because of so much work and not enough time walk around and be wistful and eat at Frenchie To Go or le 6 Paul Bert, etc. etc.), it was a maybe best trip to date, and there are many stories to come:

Enlightening Insights (hopefully blog posts) To Come From The Trip

1) The Loire Valley

The Loire Valley in the fall is something to behold. Rolling green hills covered with spots of bright gold, red and orange. Producers described for me the tiny microclimates so unique that just one hillside can produce its own particular type of grape for a particular type of wine, and it can do so because of the time of day the fogs rolls in, creates moisture on the mushrooms growing close to the ground, then that all goes away for the sun to shine on the grapes just the right amount of time per day at certain times of the year.

Yes, imagine dinner parties outside here with wine pairings, with wine made from the grapes you can sit there at dusk and gaze upon.

And then a walk down some trails to the river...

2) The natural wine movement in France and some of the people behind it

I met Kenji Hodgson and his wife Mai, not pictured here, at a wine-tasting in Paris that was celebrating natural wines of the Anjou region. They up and left Canada to lease some land in Anjou to make wine the natural way, through their company, Vins Hodgson. Kenji was patient with my schedule to fit in a visit to their cave here in Le Breil 49380. (Need GPS to get there.) Kenji and Mai share the cave with Damien Bureau, pictured here on my left, who is the man behind a very fun and tasty sparkling wine (un vin pétillant) and maybe the most darling wine label ever.

You could not have two more different experiences in the Loire Valley: an afternoon at Soucherie....

And a day learning from passionate pioneers in a relatively new wine movement--the natural winemakers, just down the winding road a few miles, guys sharing some space in a old barn to make some interesting and truly lovely wines.

It's all part of today's wine culture in the Loire Valley. And it's all way good.

3) Gentrification in Paris

Paris is changing, opening up to more English spoken everywhere and trendy small hipster joints all over. (The business culture will take more time...) And some have wondered whether hipsters are ruining Paris. Case in point: a Paris friend's longtime neighborhood "mom-and-pop" boulangerie in the bubbling-over-with-change-and-renos 10th arrondissement was recently closed in favor of a more sleek and thoroughly updated boulangerie, combining épicerie type wares with candies and pastries (i.e. as in a patisserie).

Jury is out on whether all this is good. For example, where did mom and pop go who had the boulangerie before this one? Did they cash out at a great price such that la retraite will be a sweet deal indeed? Don't know. Will check out Liberté next time, as it is near ever-delightful Le Verre Volé. Until next time.